Accused expected to face more charges in van attack
Three counts of attempted murder pending
An 83-year-old Avon representative who was still making sales, a 22-year-old Korean student and a 33-yearold account executive at an international firm were identified by police on Friday as the last remaining victims of this week’s van attack in Toronto.
Seven other victims had previously been identified by family or friends.
The eight women and two men, ranging in age from 22 to 94, had all been going about their day when a rental van allegedly driven by 25-year-old Alek Minassian came careening down the sidewalk, hitting them in a murderous rampage.
Toronto Police Insp. Bryan Bott told reporters that Minassian, who was previously charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder, was expected to face three additional counts of attempted murder at his next court hearing, set for May 10. Police have not determined a motive for the attack.
To date, police have interviewed 170 witnesses and still have more than 100 to talk to. More than 100 images have also been uploaded to a web portal set up by police to help them piece together the sequence of events. Police have also searched Minassian’s home and seized several items, Bott said.
“Our work will continue as we look to move this case forward and secure a successful prosecution,” he said.
In officially announcing the names of all 10 victims, Dirk Huyer, Ontario’s chief coroner, explained to reporters that the decision to use dental records to confirm the identities took time and acknowledged that the process frustrated some families.
“We needed to do the additional work to ensure there was no confusion or any potential additional grief,” he said, thanking families for their patience in the aftermath of the “unspeakable tragedy.”
In addition to the 10 who were killed, the number of injured grew from 14 to 16 after two people, who didn’t require transport to hospital, came forward to authorities.
As of Friday, 12 of them remained in hospital.
Even at the age of 83, Geraldine Brady — “Gerry” to her friends — was still delivering Avon products to her customers.
She had been a representative of the direct-sales company for 45 years, said friend and Avon colleague Feanny Xu.
“They kept her going. At that age, she was still active,” Xu said. “She can’t let her customers down.”
WORK WILL CONTINUE AS WE ... MOVE THIS CASE FORWARD.
Brady, a grandmother, lived in the area where Monday’s van attack occurred, Xu said, describing her as the “most honest and kind person I ever met.”
Andrea Bradden, 33, worked as an account executive at Gartner Canada, an information technology market research company with an office on Yonge Street just north of Sheppard.
She graduated from Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School in Caledon, Ont., in 2003, and attended a Slovenian Catholic church in Etobicoke, according to the Caledon Enterprise.
“Andrea’s joyful energy brought smiles, happiness and laughter to everyone who was privileged to work with her and call her a friend,” wrote Alex Falkingham, a colleague at Gartner, in a public post that has since been taken down. “She had the uncanny ability to make any room she walked into a more positive place, with laughter filling the room. When Andrea smiled, everyone smiled with her.”
Another colleague described a recent business trip by propeller plane to a remote mining town, and how Bradden’s good nature kept spirits high.
Other posts from colleagues described her as energetic, passionate, funny and widely respected.
Ji Hun Kim, 22, a student from South Korea, was one of two foreign nationals killed in Monday’s van attack (the other was Munir Najjar, a Jordanian national who was in town visiting his son).
Earlier in the week, Seneca College president David Agnew, without mentioning Kim by name, confirmed that a female student was “an innocent victim of this tragic act of violence.”
No additional information on Kim was available Friday evening.